West Midlands Safari Park welcomes new six-foot baby giraffe - with his first wobbly steps caught on camera

A UK safari park has welcomes a brand new six foot-tall baby, and caught his awkward first scramble to his feet on camera.

Proud Rothschild’s giraffe mum Arusha gave birth to the baby boy, named Mtembei, at West Midlands Safari Park in the early hours of last Wednesday (29 May) morning. Keepers had set up CCTV to monitor the new mum, and caught incredible footage of her going into labour and delivering her calf, supported by fellow female Akacia.

The amazing footage captured not only the moment the baby was born, but also him struggling to his feet for the very first time - and taking his first wobbly steps.

Deputy head keeper Ian Nock told SWNS: “On the morning of May 29, the keepers and I were all extremely delighted to see that Arusha, our 12-year-old Rothschild’s giraffe, had given birth. Arusha is a very attentive mother, and both are doing perfectly.

“Once the calf is ready, we shall start introducing mother and calf to the rest of the herd, including dad, Rufus and brother, Kingsley,” he continued. “This important birth increases our herd to 11. It’s definitely been something of a baby boom.”

Mtembei was Arusha’s fourth calf, Mr Nock added, and he’d play an important role in giraffe conservation efforts in the future.

The world only has one species of giraffe - made up of nine subspecies. The famously long-necked ungulates are classed as ‘vulnerable’ by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) with their numbers steadily declining across Africa due to poaching and habitat loss, the safari park said.

All the babies born this year will have names which start with the letter ‘M’, so the giraffe calf has been named Mtembei, which means ‘he who roams’. The giraffe calf is one of four new arrivals in just over a fortnight following the birth of two endangered barasingha fawns. A blesbok calf was also born on 1 June – the first in the park’s history.